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Archive for tag "Karl Leo"

Capital-intensive smart green startups in Europe aiming at building their own hardware factories have a hard time fundraising. Financially motivated VCs require capital efficiency and prefer hardware startups that outsource manufacturing and the necessary CAPEX. Financing new PV factories in Europe is even more difficult due to China’s hegemony. It turns out it can only be done if you develop the next generation of PV technology, continuously improve efficiency and work diligently on building a co-investor syndicate of family offices, corporates and governments. Keep in mind that it was the Chinese government that backed a myriad of Chinese manufacturers to hijack the global PV industry. After a very long fundraising journey, 10-year old Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) pioneer Heliatek finally found the capital to build its second 3G solar factory in Dresden, Germany’s epicentre of photonics and organic semiconductors.

Congratulations to Novaled and its founders and investors which include eCapital, Germany’s most active cleantech VC. This is a fantastic exit that brings hope and money to the cleantech startup industry in Europe. Samsung Cheil Industries (aka Samsung Chemical) and Samsung Electronics buy 50% and 40% respectively of the Dresden-based late stage startup for a total of €260M of which €30M are bound to reaching further growth targets. Corporate VC Samsung Ventures maintains their 10% stake in the transaction. Founded in 2001, Novaled is a world leader in OLED (Organic LED) materials. Following a fabless strategy from the beginning, Samsung is Novaled’s biggest customer and it comes as no suprise that they turn out to be the acquirer. Novaled’s revenues grew from €10M in 2010 to €26M in 2012. Thus, Novaled’s valuation at exit is 10 times the 2012 revenues or, in other words, the price sales ratio is 10.

Ecosummit TV: Prof. Karl Leo is Germany’s poster child when it comes to co-founding new smart green startups out of university. In his case, it’s the University of Dresden where he leads the Institute for Applied Photophysics. He simultaneously works with Fraunhofer IPMS to create even more value. Karl Leo is famous for co-founding Novaled which is heading for NASDAQ as well as Heliatek. His new startup that currently looks for smart green VCs invents OLED Microdisplays which are super energy efficient as you put them directly in front of the eye. Karl Leo is a role model for Europe’s university professors and we are happy that he joined Ecosummit 2012.

Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit Founder Jan Michael Hess opens Ecosummit Berlin 2012 on 22 March at Radialsystem. The sun is shining and many smart green people are in the house, visibly motivated to share ideas and grow their network. Our third Smart Green Business Conference is climate neutral thanks to the carbon offset powered by ClimatePartner. According to Bart Markus of Wellington Partners, Cleantech includes many big markets such as wind, solar, water or efficiency. Big markets attract lots of VC money and absorb experiments and execution mistakes. According to Prof. Karl Leo, Europe is good at basic research – this is our culture – but bad at application and bringing new ideas fast to global markets. At ECO12, we aggregated 225 startups, VCs and corporates to accelerate Smart Green Innovation. And we announced Virtual Ecosummit powered by ubivent. Let the show begin!

Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Karl Leo, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer for winning the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011 (DZP11) today. The DZP11 is awarded by the German President and includes €250K prize money. I am very proud of this trio and their work. Karl Leo is university professor at TU Dresden and co-founder of both Novaled and Heliatek, Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth is co-founder and CSO (Chief Scientific Officer) of Novaled and Martin Pfeiffer is co-founder and CTO of Heliatek. It’s all about organic electronics, organic LED and organic PV made in Dresden, Europe’s leading cluster for green photonics.